[Download] Sony Ericsson TrackID now available for all Android devices...in Sweden

Thanks, Sweden!

Sony Ericsson's music identification and sharing application, TrackID, is one of the more widely appreciated features of the Xperia line, and it's just been made available to all and sundry on the Android Market - providing you're running Froyo or above. Also providing you live in Sweden. Hmm.

Well, the global village has struck again, and thanks to user lastword112 over at XDA, the app is now available to download and sideload. Naturally, we've provided a mirror below. Click through to get your download on.

Aussie court overturns Galaxy Tab 10.1 ban...

The Australian Federal Court today reversed Justice Annabelle Bennett's decision to block sales of Samsung's flagship Android-powered tablet. While the court decision has gone Samsung's way, Apple has, as expected, requested leave to appeal the decision. Invoking something called a "stay of orders", the court has decided to retain the original injunction until Apple presents its appeal on Friday afternoon.

The reversed decision announced today effectively found errors in fact or in law that Justice Bennett made during the original case, and will mean that Samsung will be able to sell the Tab 10.1 in spite of Apple's attempt to prevent it. Had the injunction not been overturned, the Galaxy Tab 10.1 would have been dead in the water, missing the Christmas shopping season and its best opportunity to garner sales prior to being replaced in the new year by its successor.

Apple tries to get Galaxy Tab 10.1N banned now...

In an apparent case of déja vu, Apple has applied for and been granted a hearing at the Duesseldorf Regional Court on a preliminary injunction to prevent sales of the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1N, just introduced on the German market.

The banned Galaxy Tab 10.1

Having succeeded in having the Galaxy Tab 10.1 banned the first time around, Apple's legal eagles are apprently feeling confident that the modified tablet will also suffer the same fate, and Samsung will be forced to stop selling the new hardware in Germany. It doesn't stop there though. There's a probability that Apple will demand a ruling that prevents the 10.1N being sold anywhere in the European Union.

Although Apple would obviously prefer the ban to be immediate, the hearing has been set down for December 22, too late to stop sales prior to the important Christmas shopping season. In the meantime, the pending hearing will have "no effect on sales and distribution of the product" according to an oddly optimistic Samsung.

Android leads smartphone share in the US. Again...

In case you can't be bothered decoding the chart below, here's a summary of the third quarter US smartphone market action.

Hot on the heels of the report on the state of the UK smartphone platform market, comes Nielsen's take on Q3 in the good ol' You Ess of Eh. Unsurprisingly, Android continues to gain share with its 42.8% while its nearest competitor Apple scores 28.3%. For comparison, the figures for the previous quarter show Android with 39% OS share while iOS had 28.0%. In Q3, RIM managed a creditable 17.8%, WinMobile 7.3% (all versions combined), WebOS 2.2% and Symbian a quite appalling 1.7%.

The US market contains some interesting quirks with Nokia's presence being absent for all practical purposes and Apple enjoying the home team iFan advantage. Neither of those factors appears to have had much, if any, influence on Android's Q3 US market performance though.

Surprisingly perhaps, HTC is still the biggest Android handset seller in the US and second handset seller overall with 20.3%, followed by the ever-improving Samsung with a total of 11%. Local lads Motorola sold 10.6% and the rest ran last-ish. Apple still leads the handset manufacturer stakes in its home country with 28.3%, while RIM's Blackberry commands a decent 17.8% for third place still, despite the doom prognoses it gets in the blogosphere on an almost daily basis. Go figure...

While the US market continues trends seen over recent quarters, this report obviously cannot reflect the launch of the iPhone 4S so there will be a shift in relative share reported in Q4. Rest assured, we'll be covering that news when it appears in January.

 Source: Nielsen

The Galaxy Note "Real-user" Review: Part 4 - the "ABCs of smartphone review" - Addendums, bugs, battery, camera, conclusion... and S-Pen!

It's a little bit late, but then the end is a little bit
early - forgive me?

OK, so the title for this piece is a little long-winded. I can't argue with that. I kinda assume that if you're still with me after the nearly 10,000 words I've already expended in this review, you'll probably forgive me the title.

You see, I was starting to ready my piece on the S-Pen when the thought occurred to me that I'd had enough time with the Note to cover things like battery life and bugs too. At that point the best way forward seemed to be just including the S-Pen material in the wrap-up (not to mention it fit my ABC acronym, and really, who can resist an ABC acronym right?). I should point out that although I've used the term 'wrap-up' just now, which implies some kind of to-the-point brevity, this piece will in fact live up to the epic length of the preceding parts, as befits a review of the behemoth that is the Galaxy Note.

So, what am I covering after the break? Obviously the S-Pen is a major focus of discussion, but that is far from everything that needs attention before we lay this review to rest. I'm also going to cover the Note's camera, it's stability in day-to-day use and any Note-worthy bugs (ba-dum-cha!), provide some updates/corrections/ addenda about various things that have come to light with more time with the device, and then (finally!) conclude the review.

Oh, and disregard all the mentions of the video in the review - that's actually going to follow shortly afterward.

All this awaits after one final jump...

iOS demand pips UK Android sales in October

As anybody paying attention could (and did) predict, Apple's latest iGadget has helped iOS to take top honours in the smartphone segment in the UK. Reported by obscure market tracker, the intriguingly-named Kantar Worldpanel ComTech, iOS totted up 42.8% market share for the week ending october 30, while the UK's Android sales for that week managed a relatively lacklustre 35%.

So, as expected, the much-speculated mega-hit generated by the iP4S's pent-up demand arrived in the UK at least, and for a week the Cupertino phone maker got to bask in some good market share news for a change. The fly in the ointment is that across the quarter ending on that same October 30, Android devices still sold to the smartphone-buying Brits faster than than iOS iDevices did - Android scoring 46% to Apple's 27.8%.

But the iPhone maker will be sighing with relief at the cessation, however temporary, of its continually poor showing versus Google's efforts.

Note also that this result is for the UK only, and covered the week of the iPhone 4S's launch. It also occurred in a climate where Apple has finally made its phones available to any carrier that can afford the meaty subsidy the company demands for the priviledge of becoming an iPhone reseller, and the new gizmo is a world phone which means it's able to run on any network on the good Earth.

Still, expect the news to be trumpeted from the rooftops in Cupertino for the next 30 days.

Graphic courtesy of Kantar Worldpanel ComTech - note the comparitive growth figures...

Brief announcement: The Galaxy Nexus has arrived!

Just a quick heads-up that the blogs Galaxy Nexus has arrived, so expect our coverage on it to start shortly. If you haven't already thrown your questions about the Nexus our way, now is your chance - use the comments section below!

In other matters: the final part of the Note review is just getting a couple of finishing tweaks and will go out later today, the video that accompanies that will be delayed slightly but we didn't want to hold up the epic conclusion to the Note review any longer.

A Brief History Of Android - Part 4: Crossroads

Ice Cream Sandwich. Sweeeet...

In this series so far, we've looked at the modest beginnings of Android through its various iterations, with our last chapter focusing on the explosive growth of the platform in the last year. To the makers of competitive platforms, Android's rise to dominance has been a serious impediment to their own good fortune. And they haven't been shy in roundly criticising Google's effort whenever the opportunity arises either.

Although Android's perceived weaknesses have been the subject of regular negative commentary from the opposition camps, the spectacular performance of the little green robot has continued unabated. So what's going on here? If Android is the disaster that its opponents claim it to be, shouldn't it be failing miserably? Is it failing at all? Let's have a peek after the jump.

Ice Cream Sandwich spotted on the ASUS Transformer Prime

With the impending release of the ASUS Transformer Prime, I can definitely say it is up there on my christmas list. The Tegra 3 processor, ultra-thin design and Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich are all features that I've been longing for.

The original Transformer was notable for its keyboard docking station which essentially turned the tablet into a netbook, whilst also adding extra battery life.

To quench some of your Prime thirst, NVIDIA has released a video showing off the power of the Tegra 3 processor in gaming, video and overall usage. Check out the video below and if you're anything like me, you'll agree the performance looks buttery smooth.

The Android NZ Apps of the Week 21/11/2011 [AOTW]

A big part of the joy of having a smartphone is apps, am I right? I'm sure many are nodding their heads to that assertion, if that's you then make the jump to check out the apps the AndroidNZ editors are enjoying this week. If you weren't nodding your head in agreement then you'd better make the jump to see what you're missing out on, in addition to making the even bigger jump into smartphone use for 2011!

AndroidNZ’s week in Android news for 21th November

Another week gone by and it's my turn to fill you in with notable news of the past week and what we can expect to see later this week. Last week was jam packed with Galaxy Nexus coverage, information, releases, you name it! Tegra 3 rumors are starting to unfold & the Kindle Fire was released in the United States. With so much to go through, let's get started now;

[App Review] RunKeeper

Here's the third app review of an Android workout application.  This time it's RunKeeper.


As you can see, the application is pretty bland. But for all that, it's got some rather cool features.

Before we get into those goodies let me explain how I review these workout applications.  I've reviewed the Cardio Trainer and Endomondo applications and all including RunKeeper are compared to data collected on my Garmin 310XT watch. Fair is fair, they are all subjected to a bike and run session which I then compare to the Garmin.  And in case you're mildly interested, I import the Garmin *.FIT file into SportTracks. Now that we've established the way in which I rate my findings, lets get on with it.

“Everything iDon’t, Droid Does” – a history of Verizon's "Droid" brand, Part One

Droid Does origin stories.

Hello there, friends. As some of you may be aware, I’m lucky enough to have had a brand spanking new Motorola RAZR to play around with since Tuesday. I’ve been putting it through its paces, and am about to start spouting out in-depth review content from a real-world day-to-day usage context – unlike those one-day review devices other sites rush to push out impressions on, I’m taking the time to make the RAZR my daily driver, and it’s for this reason that I want to write lots of filler articles tell you where I and the phone am coming from, before I begin.

You see, I’ve not had a chance to play with one of Motorola’s high-end Android devices with their own flavour of the operating system before. Here in little old New Zealand, the most exciting Moto device on the market is the Defy+. What have Moto been up to for the past two years? Well, that’s where this article comes in: I want to talk about the history of the Droid series of devices.

A comment on our aptly-named editor ArtooDeetoo’s excellent History of Android series asking why the original Motorola Droid was omitted inspired me to research it and its ilk in a little more depth than I had previously. This was quite the worthwhile venture, as the Droid reversed Android, Motorola, and Verizon's fortunes. I have quite a lot to say about these devices, so we’ll call this the first instalment – I also want to look in-detail at several key television advertisements, as well as the full device range, not to mention a few ways to get a taste of the Droid branding on your Android phone or tablet right now. Without further ado, let’s jump into onslaught86’s A Brief History of Droids.

Spotify streaming music service coming to New Zealand next year

Streaming music services have become incredibly popular in the US and UK, with the likes of Pandora, Microsoft's Zune (Which recently launched in Australia), and of course Google's own Google Music service showing the potential of data-enabled devices to use 'the cloud' to overcome their limited local storage. Here in little ol' NZ, however, we've been largely left behind, with only Sony's Qriocity "Music Unlimited" service available to date.

Thankfully, that looks ready to change as early as February next year. With a well-reviewed Android app, this looks like it could be worthwhile, although I have reservations about the potential data cost, not to mention the monthly costs. Sony has set the bar at $5.99 NZD for its basic service, and $13.99 NZD for premium content, so one can only imagine pricing will be similar for Spotify. Will you be giving it a try? Hit up the comments after the jump and let us know.

A Brief History Of Android Part 3: Rise Of The Robot

Recently Android founder and Google VP Andy Rubin tweeted that Android's growth was a credibility-straining 4.4% week on week. Think about that for a second – it's not just 4.4 times 52, it's compounding. He's talking activations here and those activations are one-off events, tied to the unique hardware serial in every cellphone built.

That's a very big claim, and would seem to suggest that Android will become the Windows of the smartphone world. For those unfamiliar with Windows in PC land, firstly welcome to Earth, and second, Windows has more than 90% of the personal computer marketplace. Huge! So is Android really headed for such domination? Let's take a look.

Android's Growth Continues Unabated

Gartner's figures are in and the news is all good for Android - not so good for most everybody else. The little green robot's share of the smartphone market has rocketed to 52.2% and I use the word "rocketed" without hint of exaggeration. Just one paltry year ago, its market share stood at 25.3%. That, for the mathematically-challenged among us, is a more than doubling of market share, something that even the most critical of pundits can but regard with something approaching awe.

The Galaxy Note "Real-user" Review: Part 3 - GPS and Telephony

Here we are, part three of the Galaxy Note review to rule them all. This time I'm covering GPS and 'Reception', which covers not only WiFi and network reception, but also telephony aspects since they are inextricably linked to the signal strength attained by the Note.

You might recall that Samsung's flagship device of last year was lambasted for serious GPS issues - here is what I had to say of these previously at the Clove Blog: "You see, the first Galaxy S had problems with its GPS, rather large problems as it happens. While it could get a lock in an adequate timeframe, albeit slower than nearly every GPS-enabled handset I’ve owned since the N95, it just couldn’t hold it well enough to be relied upon. As a consequence, navigation was a rather painful experience at times. This was particularly evident in areas with densely packed and winding streets – your position would jump from street to neighbouring street continuously, triggering route recalculations each time. The result? Garbage voice guidance, confusion, frustration. Trying to do GPS-based tasks like sports-tracking, or geocaching that require even more accuracy? Forget about it." 

When I reviewed the Galaxy S II earlier this year for the Clove Blog, questions regarding it's GPS performance were far and away the most prominent question in the minds of prospective buyers. With the Galaxy S II things were a definite improvement, and for navigation at least I adjudicated it adequate for most users needs. Not exactly a ringing endorsement is it? Certainly the S II's GPS performance was not enough in the minds of many to cast the spectre of the Galaxy S's dreadful GPS firmly into the past. 

So then, is the Note the device that will finally put paid to Samsung's GPS shame, or will it yet again draw the ire of buyers? Answers after the break...

Can the Galaxy Note reproduce this kind of accuracy regularly???

Samsung Galaxy Note: GPS video demonstration

Ok, this is just a teaser of the full written review on GPS to come, but since that piece will be delayed until tomorrow now I thought this might help tide you over:

The Android NZ Apps of the Week 14/11/2011 [AOTW]

Wow, I am so snowed under with content I need to be producing it's insane - I'll barely have time to finish my Galaxy Note review before the Galaxy Nexus arrives!

Some things are important though, you just make the time. Things like posting up our editors hand-picked app recommendations, for example. 

To see what made our list this week, just make a wee jump over the break. You'll be glad you made the time.

AndroidNZ's Week in Android News for 13 November 2011

Welcome to another Week in Android News. I just want to start off by saying that we are lucky to be living in such exciting times. The mobile industry is advancing at an incredible pace and we have innovative new ideas and products constantly being announced.

While we are currently reviewing the Galaxy Note fairly extensively you can expect things to ramp up in the coming weeks with the Motorola Razr arriving this week and hopefully the Galaxy Nexus in a few weeks.

On that note catch us after the jump for news, reviews and how to's for the week ending 13 November, 2011

Motorola Razr: Unboxing video - first impressions, size comparison to the Galaxy S II and Galaxy Note

Quick heads up that the first of our Motorola Razr coverage is out on YouTube now for your viewing pleasure. Of course it's the obligatory unboxing video, replete with a size comparison to some of the other mobile hotness living at my place right now.

Naturally lots more content will be following, so keep it locked here to catch our incoming and indepth "real-user" review, this time coming courtesy of editor extraordinaire Onslaught86. Make sure to give him a follow in Twitter @onslaught86 if you just have to have his up-to-the-minute impressions and experiences with the device. I've been posting to my Twitter account (@NZtechfreak) with some insights of my own from the brief play I'm having with the device before shipping it off to Nik.

[At Your Own Risk] How to Root your Galaxy Note

[UPDATED GUIDE 11/11/2011]

You know one thing I really love about Samsung Android devices? They never really lock the bootloaders. Why do I love that? Because Root usually comes very soon after release of the device, or in the case of the Note pretty much at release. 


I just got my Galaxy Note, so naturally the first thing I wanted to do to my my brand new handset was invalidate it's minty-fresh warranty.

Now that I've done that, and can live up to our guarantee that we only do guides for things we've done to our own devices, here are the spoils for you: a guide on how to violate the conditions of your minty-fresh warranty Root your Galaxy Note.

...also we also have video guides to supplement these written ones on our YouTube channel!

[At Your Own Risk] Video guide for NEW recommended Root method for the Galaxy Note

Hi everyone, quick heads-up that there is now a superior Root method available for the Galaxy Note - one that doesn't increase the binary flash counter, meaning you can return your Note to stock for warranty purposes. I will re-jig the Root guide tomorrow to cover this new method in detail, but for now I have put together this video guide to the process. This method is courtesy of the Zergrush exploit and the inimicable Chainfire, please consider donating to this great developer to keep his efforts alive!

The Galaxy Note "Real-user" Review: Part 2 - Entertainment and media - Music and video playback, gaming, browser

When all is said and done, can the
Note be the handset to cover all
your entertainment needs? Make
the jump for your answer!

Asus officially announces the Transformer Prime

Image courtesy of Engadget.com

While previously seen at AsiaD the Transformer Prime had yet to have an official announcement. Well suffice to say now there has been one. The Transformer Prime is officially being released Worldwide in December 2011.

As a sequel to the popular Asus Eee Pad Transformer, the Prime has some rather large shoes to fill as a hybrid tablet computing device. Thankfully it appears to have some pretty amazing specs that include a Tegra 3 processor and a slim Zenbook-esque design to boot. 

You can check out the specs and what we think after the jump

HTC Edge bringing Kal-El love?

Image courtesy of pocketnow.com

According to pocketnow.com the first Kal-El Tegra 3 bearing HD handset is going to be the HTC Edge. Coming in Q1/Q2 2012 this device has some astonishing specs and a fairly typical, yet attractive HTC designed unibody shell. 

While pocketnow reported a 10mm thickness, BGR’s source says that the Edge is more likely to be a far more svelte 8.8mm thick (or is that thin?)

If you want to see the rest of the specs, continue reading after the jump 

Nook Tablet announced - do we have a Kindle Fire competitor?

Image courtesy of Barnes & Noble

Earlier today Barnes & Noble announced a sequel to the Nook Color, the Nook Tablet.

Obviously intended to compete with Amazon's Kindle Fire, the Nook Tablet appears to have quite a lot going for it and really only loses out to the Kindle Fire on price. The announcement included a release date of 18 November 2011; just 3 days after the Kindle Fire is released. 

Unfortunately there is no word on when this is coming to New Zealand, if at all (much like the Kindle Fire in that regard).

Here's a quick run down of the specs in comparison:

Device Name	Nook Tablet	Kindle Fire
Who makes it?	Barnes & Noble	Amazon
Connectivity	Wi-Fi Only (Wireless N)	Wi-Fi Only (Wireless N)
OS	Android 2.3	Android based (2.1 or earlier)
Dimensions (HxWxD)	206 mm x 127 mm x 12 mm	190 mm x 120 mm x 11.4 mm
Weight	400g	414g
Processor	1GHz OMAP 4	1GHz OMAP4
RAM	1GB	1GB
Storage	16GB	8GB
Android Market?	No – proprietary app store	No – proprietary app store
Expandable	Yes – Micro SD	No
Screen	7” multi-touch IPS Display	7” multi-touch IPS Display
Resolution	1024x600	1024x600
Cameras?	None	None
Microphone	Yes	No
USB	Yes – probably Micro USB	USB 2.0 (micro-B connector)
Quoted Battery Life	11.5hrs reading 9hrs watching video	8hrs reading 7.5hrs watching video
File Formats Supported	Document Formats EPUB ,PDF ,XLS, DOC, PPT, TXT, DOCM, XLSM, PPTM, PPSX, PPSM, DOCX, XLX, PPTX Audio Formats MP3, MP4, AAC, AMR, WAV, OGG (Audio Codecs MP3, AAC, AMR, LPCM, OGG Vorbis)  Image Formats JPG, GIF, PNG, BMP Video Formats MP4, or Adobe Flash Player format, 3GP, 3G2 MKV, WEBM (Video Codecs: H.264, MPEG-4, H.263, VP8)	Document Formats Kindle (AZW), TXT, PDF, unprotected MOBI, PRC natively,), DOC, DOCX Audio Formats non-DRM AAC, MP3, MIDI, OGG, WAV, Audible (Audible Enhanced (AA, AAX) Image Formats JPEG, GIF, PNG, BMP Video Formats MP4, VP8.
Charging Time	3hrs	4hrs
Price	$249 USD (~$313 NZD)	$199 USD (~$250 NZD)

So, will the Nook Tablet be able to compete with the Kindle Fire? - let us know what you think in the comments. 

Sources:
Barnes & Noble
Amazon

[At Your Own Risk] Get the Roboto font on your Rooted Galaxy Note

If you're waiting for my next Galaxy Note review instalment I'm afraid this post will disappoint you; this is not the post you're looking for. Don't worry though, those posts are coming very soon!

This post is for people who have, or will have, the Galaxy Note - a brief guide for how to get the Roboto font from Ice Cream Sandwich on your Note right now. If you missed out on the press surrounding the Roboto font, it's the default font in the upcoming iteration of the Android OS, and it's something a little bit special. You see, the typeface for Roboto has been specially designed with high density, high resolution screens in mind. It promises to give you the best text reading experience on your HD screen, which of course makes it a must on the 5.3 inches of gorgeous Super AMOLED HD found in the Note.

Hit us up after the break to see how simple it is to get this running on your Note.

The Android NZ Apps of the Week 7/11/2011 [AOTW]

Good evening and/or generic time of day, boys 'n' berries. Another week's flown by already here at AndroidNZ, and you all know what that means - time for our talented team to tell you what's worth your bandwidth this week on the Android Market. 


Check out our latest recommendations after the jump.

HTC UK confirms Ice Cream Sandwich in early 2012

Earlier today on Facebook, HTC UK announced that Ice Cream Sandwich is coming in early 2012 to most of their recent handsets.

This includes the following:

• HTC Sensation
• HTC Sensation XE
• HTC Sensation XL
• HTC Rezound*
• HTC EVO 3D
• HTC EVO Design 4G*
• HTC Amaze 4G*

*denotes US only handsets

It still remains to be seen how they will integrate all of the new features that Android 4.0 brings with their famous (or is that infamous?) Sense UI. Carriers in New Zealand may also contribute to there being a fairly large delay before we see the update rolled out here. Thankfully there are alternative ways to flash new roms on Android devices :-)

HTC also hinted that ICS may be coming to other handsets so stay tuned for more details in the future. 

Original Source: HTC UK on Facebook

AndroidNZ’s week in Android news for 06th November

It’s been an interesting week, dear readers. After the major Ice-Cream Sandwich and Google Nexus Galaxy announcements we covered two weeks back, we’ve well and truly entered the transitional period wherein everyone in the biz is all hyped up for the new tech toys, but haven’t quite got their eager little hands on them yet. The first wave of new devices has only just started trickling out, as NZtechfreak can attest.

 

We’ve been busy little bees here at Android NZ – We’ve got videos, we’ve got reviews, and we’ve got news, so without further ado, let’s launch into the week that was.

 

Samsung Galaxy Note: Connectivity demonstration - MHL, RDP, bluetooth keyboard/mouse/gamepad, USB OTG

The triumphant return of the most famous USB OTG cable in
existence!!!!!!!!!

If a title ever needed to come with a decoder ring, it's the title for this piece. That's a stupid number of acronyms right there. The only thing that could be worse is a title 200 words long, which is how that headline looks if you don't use the acronyms [#rockandhardplace]. Luckily I'm blessed to have an amazingly tech-savvy readership, and you probably understood all of that anyways. Am I right?

No? 

If you're wondering what the heck I'm on about, there is this thing on the internet called Google that can help you. OK, I know that's a little harsh, but I'm soooo tired today! I just haven't got the energy in me to explain it all - even the two triple-shot espressos I just had weren't sufficient to raise the energy meter above empty. Fortunately I had a few scraps of energy earlier, and made this cool video to show you what those pesky acronyms mean. Check out the video below, enlightenment awaits!

If on the other hand  you totally got the whole title then you should also catch the clip, because it's truly awesome the stuff you can do on your phone these days, and it's never been better than it is now that phone screens have entered the HD age. In particular I'm really loving remote desktop use with Splashtop; with the high res screen it is finally a good experience on a phone (incidentally after shooting the video I spent some time in Splashtop via 3G today - barely any lag and could watch a video with sound - amazing!).